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Introduction

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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The first area in the United States to be set aside from commercial exploitation was Yellowstone National Park, most of which lies within the state of Wyoming. The park was created in 1872, when Wyoming was still a territory. The natural grandeur of the 44th state in the Union was further recognized in 1906 with the designation of the first national monument in the United States. Devils Tower is an immense lava outcropping near the Belle Fourche River in the northeastern corner of Wyoming. Another national monument, in the southwest, Fossil Butte preserves one of the world’s largest fossil fish beds in rocks laid down some 60 million years ago.

The backbone of the North American continent, the Continental Divide, or Crest of the Rockies, weaves across Wyoming. It was a challenge for hundreds of thousands of pioneers from the East. In 1850 alone some 50,000 emigrants trekked through the wide open spaces of Wyoming on their way to the fertile land on the other side of the Great Divide. Most of the historic traces to the Pacific coast, including the Oregon, Mormon, Overland, and Bozeman trails, passed through the region. The mail route of the legendary Pony Express crossed the territory in 1860–61 and helped keep California in the Union camp. The Union Pacific Railroad tracks, which linked the East and West coasts, also went through Wyoming, but few people got off the trains to stay. Among those who opened up the Wyoming frontier were fur trappers such as Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith, scouts such as Jim Baker and Kit Carson, and explorers such as John Bozeman and John C. Frémont. The first white women to see Wyoming were the missionary wives of Henry Harmon Spalding and Marcus Whitman.

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The frontier landscape inspired both E.W. Gollings (called the Cowboy Artist) and the early work of the painter Jackson Pollock. It was the setting for some of the mystery romances of Mary Roberts Rinehart, the short stories of Struthers Burt, the hyperbolic humor of Bill Nye, and the Westerns of Owen Wister, the creator of The Virginian—a Wyoming tenderfoot (novice cowboy) whose immortal comment on slander was “When you call me that, smile!”

National Park Service

National Park Service

For much of the 19th century the free open-range country was the lonely land of the cowboy. When cattle raising began to flourish after the American Civil War, Wyoming was the scene of many cattle drives. Before the devastation of overgrazing, its grasses were ideal food for the offspring of the cattle who had traveled the Oregon Trail with the wagon trains bound for the Far West.

Because of the state’s high, rugged terrain and sparse rainfall, much of the land is still a stock-grazing range. The grasses of its mountains, valleys, and plains feed cattle and sheep. Most of these animals are tended on sprawling ranches of several thousand acres each. Cities and towns are far apart. Most places have less than 10,000 people, and only two cities have more than 50,000 inhabitants.

Although Wyoming has long been associated with livestock, mineral resources play a more important part in the state’s economy. Especially important are the state’s vast reserves of fuel minerals—oil, natural gas, and coal. Most of Wyoming’s small industrial work force is employed in oil refineries.

Wyoming has scored notable firsts in the area of women’s rights. In 1869, the year after the territory was created, its legislature granted the vote and the right to hold office to women—the first such legal recognition in the United States. In 1924 Wyoming elected the first woman governor in the United States: Nellie Tayloe Ross.

Such dedication to human rights is reflected in Wyoming’s nickname, the Equality State. The Cowboy State, the Sagebrush State, and the Big Wyoming State are other nicknames. Reportedly the territory was almost called Cheyenne, the name given to the first large settlement (named for one of the Native American tribes that lived in the area). Instead the territory was named for the Wyoming Valley of northeastern Pennsylvania, where other Native Americans in the region had formerly lived. The original term comes from a Delaware Native American word meaning “land of vast plains.” It was popularized in the romantic epic tale Gertrude of Wyoming (1809) by Scottish poet Thomas Campbell. Area 97,813 square miles (253,334 square kilometers). Population (2010) 563,626.

Survey of the Equality State

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Wyoming lies about midway between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. Here the Great Plains of the West merge with the towering Rocky Mountains. The massive Rockies sweep across Wyoming from northwest to southeast and reach their greatest width in this state. As a result of this, Wyoming composes a vast upland, with an average elevation of about 6,700 feet (2,042 meters)—higher than that of any other state except Colorado.

A rectangular state, Montana is bounded by two meridians, 104° and 111° W longitude, and two parallels, 41° and 45° N latitude. Its greatest length, from east to west, is 367 miles (591 kilometers). From north to south its greatest width is 278 miles (447 kilometers).

Natural Regions

The Continental Divide zigzags through Wyoming from northwest to southeast. It follows the Absaroka Range in the north, the Wind River Range in the center, and the Sierra Madre in the south. To the east, Wyoming rivers join the Missouri-Mississippi system to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. To the west, the rivers join the Columbia and the Colorado systems to flow into the Pacific Ocean.

Wyoming straddles two of the large natural regions of the United States. The western two-thirds of the state lie within the Rocky Mountain System. This region has four subdivisions: the Southern, Middle, and Northern Rocky Mountains and the Wyoming Basin. The eastern third of the state is part of the Great Plains province of the Interior Plains, a vast lowland region that covers most of the central United States.

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountain section of Wyoming is a region of lofty ranges separated by wide valleys and basins. In the north are the chief ranges of the Middle Rockies—the Absaroka and Bighorn mountains. Between these highlands is the basin of the Bighorn River. In the west-central part of the state are the other large ranges of the Middle Rockies—the Teton, Salt River, Wyoming, Wind River, and Owl Creek. Gannett Peak, in the Wind River Range, is the highest point in the state at 13,804 feet (4,207 meters).

The Southern and Northern Rockies cover much smaller parts of Wyoming. The Southern Rockies extend from northeastern Colorado into Carbon and Albany counties. Here are the Sierra Madre and the Medicine Bow and Laramie ranges, which enclose the Laramie Basin. The Northern Rockies extend south from Canada across Montana and Idaho and enter Wyoming at the northwestern corner of Yellowstone Park.

Wyoming Basin

Much of central and southwestern Wyoming belongs to the dry, sagebrush-covered Wyoming Basin. This area separates the Southern and Middle Rockies and is composed of smaller mountains separated by broad basins. It includes Flaming Gorge, created by the erosive action of the Green River, and the Great Divide Basin, which encloses an area of interior drainage with no outlet. The eastern part of this section is drained by the Sweetwater River.

Great Plains

The Great Plains province of Wyoming gradually increases in elevation from the state’s eastern border to the many mountain ranges that mark the region’s western edge. In general, the Great Plains have rolling stretches of grassland, few trees, and little rainfall. The entire region lies in the basin of the Missouri River. The chief streams are, from north to south, the Powder, Belle Fourche, Cheyenne, and North Platte. In the northeastern counties of Crook and Weston are the western slopes of the Black Hills, which are chiefly in South Dakota. Here, where the Belle Fourche River crosses the state boundary, is the lowest point in the state—3,100 feet (945 meters).

Climate

Wyoming has a dry, continental climate, with cold winters and warm summers. Warm chinook winds from the Rockies modify some of the winter weather of the eastern plains. Wide temperature ranges exist in the state because of differences in elevation. For example, January mean temperatures range from a low of about 10 °F (–12 °C) in the mountains to the upper 20s F (about –2 °C) in the southeast. Mean July temperatures range from the low 50s F (about 10 °C) in the mountains to the mid-70s F (about 24 °C) in the Bighorn Basin in north-central Wyoming.

Average annual precipitation (rain and melted snow) varies from 6 inches (15 centimeters) in the Bighorn Basin to about 31 inches (79 centimeters) in the Tetons. In parts of Yellowstone Park most precipitation falls as snow—as much as 260 inches (660 centimeters) a year. The growing season varies from 40 days a year in parts of the Rockies to more than 140 days a year in several protected valleys. The principal farming areas of Wyoming have a growing season that averages about 125 days a year.

Natural Resources

Len Sherwin/Stone

Wyoming’s best agricultural resource is its rich supply of grassland for grazing cattle and sheep. Only a small percent of the land area is dedicated to crops, mainly because the state receives too little rainfall. Many of the mountain slopes are timbered. The chief commercial trees are pine, spruce, and fir.

Wyoming has some of the country’s largest deposits of fossil fuels. It is the top coal-producing state and ranks among the leaders in natural gas production. It also has substantial petroleum deposits and oil shale reserves.

Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior

Conservation efforts for irrigation and hydroelectric power have been concentrated on the rivers. The largest project is on the North Platte River in the southeast. Here are Guernsey, Glendo, Alcova, Pathfinder, Kortes, and Seminoe dams. In the northeast is Keyhole Dam, on the Belle Fourche River; in the northwest, Buffalo Bill Dam, on the Shoshone. In west-central Wyoming dams form Boysen Reservoir, on the Bighorn River, and Bull Lake and Pilot Butte reservoirs, on branches of the Wind. In the southwest are Fontenelle Reservoir, on the Green River, and Big Sandy and Eden Valley reservoirs, on branches of the Green. Flaming Gorge Reservoir extends from Utah into Wyoming.

Irrigation in Wyoming has been achieved through federal Bureau of Reclamation, state, and private development. The Army Corps of Engineers has built many flood-control dams. State conservation agencies include the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources, the Game and Fish Department, and the Office of State Lands and Investments.

People

B. Anthony Stewart—NGS Image Collection/The Art Archive

Wyoming ranks last among the states in population. About nine-tenths of its residents are of European ancestry. Hispanics account for the largest minority group. African Americans constitute less than 1 percent of the total population, with most of them residing in the Cheyenne area. Although Chinese immigrants were instrumental in the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, Wyoming’s present-day Asian population is small. About 2.5 percent of the state’s population is composed of Native Americans, mostly the Arapaho and Shoshone. More than half of this population lives on the over 2,000,000-acre (810,000-hectare) Wind River Reservation in the west-central part of the state.

Cities

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Ted Wood

Wyoming has no major metropolitan area, and its two largest urban areas, Cheyenne and Casper, are small cities by the standards of most states. Cheyenne, in the southeastern corner of Wyoming, is the state capital; it is a trade and distribution center for the Middle Rocky Mountain region. Casper lies near the center of the state on the North Platte River. Most of its growth has been attributed to its oil refineries and its central location in a sheep-raising area.

Among Wyoming’s smaller cities and towns is Laramie, northwest of Cheyenne, which is a shipping point for cattle and sheep. Gillette, in the northeast, is known for its petroleum and livestock. Rock Springs, in the southwest, is the center of a coal, petroleum, natural-gas, and trona area. Sheridan, near the northern border, lies in a farming, stock-raising, and mining region.

Recreation

The traditions and culture of the American West remain very much a part of Wyoming life. The world’s largest rodeo is staged in Cheyenne during Frontier Days, a summer festival that has been held annually since 1897. Other celebrations are the Stampede in Cody, the Sheridan WYO Rodeo in Sheridan, and Jubilee Days in Laramie.

U.S. National Park Service

Ted Wood

Wyoming’s numerous state and national parks, national forests, and historic sites provide nearly unparalleled opportunities for camping, hiking, and wildlife observation. Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and Devils Tower National Monument are scenic wonders. Many residents take advantage of the state’s excellent hunting and fishing opportunities. Among the big game hunted are antelope, moose, mountain sheep, elk, bear, and deer. Jackson Hole is a popular skiing destination.

Education

The first school in the Wyoming area was established at Fort Laramie in 1852 by the Rev. William Vaux, the chaplain at the fort. The first school law, passed by the territorial legislature in 1869, provided for the support of public schools by general taxation. The groundwork for the present educational system was laid by the territorial legislature in 1873. Two years later the first high school was opened at Cheyenne.

The original state constitution of 1889 included most of the educational features started during territorial days. Public schools are now supported by a local property tax and the School Foundation Program, which derives part of its funds from mineral royalties. An elected superintendent of public instruction supervises the state’s public education system.

Higher education is provided by the University of Wyoming, founded in Laramie in 1886. It is the state’s only four-year public institution, although several four-year private universities exist. Junior colleges are located in Casper, Torrington, Powell, Sheridan, Rock Springs, Cheyenne, and Riverton.

Economy

Wyoming’s economy relies heavily on mining and agriculture, primarily the raising of livestock. The state also has an important and growing tourist industry, serving millions of visitors to the state’s parks and historic sites. Manufacturing is of only minor importance.

Agriculture and Forestry

Ranching has historically been important to the state both economically and culturally. Wyoming’s rangelands are well suited to livestock production, and more than two-fifths of the state’s land area is devoted to pasture. The cattle industry is dominant; it accounts for more than three-fifths of Wyoming’s agricultural income. The raising of sheep and lambs, along with the production of wool, is also significant.

The major crop-producing areas in Wyoming are in the southeast and in the Bighorn and Wind River basins. Most of the state’s cropland is dedicated to hay, which is used to feed livestock. Wyoming’s other important crops include barley, wheat, corn, sugar beets, and dry beans. About two-fifths of Wyoming’s total cropland is irrigated.

The state’s forests are found largely in the mountains and along streams. Most of Wyoming’s forests are composed of conifers, principally ponderosa pine in the northeast, lodgepole pine in the south-central area, and Douglas fir, Engelmann spruce, and lodgepole pine in the northwest. Since laws limit the harvest of timber in the national forests, most of the state’s timber comes from private lands.

Industry

Mining is the single largest contributor to Wyoming’s gross state product as well as a significant source of jobs. The most valuable products of this industry are fuel minerals—oil, natural gas, and coal. Wyoming’s most important nonfuel minerals include trona (unrefined soda ash), bentonite clay (used as drilling mud and foundry binder), helium, sand and gravel, portland cement, and crushed stone. The state’s uranium deposits are the largest in the United States.

Only a small portion of Wyoming’s workers are employed in manufacturing. The largest industry is oil refining. Next is the manufacture of chemicals, especially fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals. Other industries include fabricated metal products; nonmetallic mineral products, such as cement and lime; and food and beverage products.

Services

Wyoming’s service sector is dominated by tourism and recreation, which are major growth industries in the state. The state government has increased its promotion of Wyoming’s spectacular scenery and recreational opportunities. Among the principal sites for tourists are the state’s parks and historic sites, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and such attractions as Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Fort Laramie National Historic Site, and Devils Tower and Fossil Butte national monuments. Other major components of the service sector include government and real estate.

Transportation

Kim Blaxland/Tony Stone Worldwide

For many years the Wyoming region was only a link in the long overland trails to Oregon, California, and Salt Lake Valley. The chief means of transportation were two-wheeled carts, pack animals, and covered wagons. As settlements grew up in the state itself, stagecoaches were used to carry both passengers and freight.

Many of the old stage routes later became modern highways. The state Highway Commission was created in 1917 to build and care for Wyoming’s network of state and federal roads. Interstate 80 (in conjunction with much of US 30) cuts across the southern part of the state from the Nebraska border to Utah. A second east-west transportation corridor is Interstate 90, which runs through the northeastern part of the state. Interstate 25 runs from the Cheyenne area northward to Buffalo, connecting Interstates 80 and 90.

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The first railroad was the Union Pacific, which was built westward to Cheyenne in 1867. It was extended across Wyoming during the next two years. The state no longer has passenger rail service because of high costs.

Commuter air carriers serve the state’s major cities and recreational destinations, including Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, Cody, and Jackson. Most commuter air service operations originate in Denver or Salt Lake City, Utah. Additional flights are scheduled during the winter to serve skiing destinations such as Jackson Hole and Pinedale.

Government

Cheyenne was selected as the capital of Wyoming Territory in 1869. It became the state capital when Wyoming was admitted to the Union in 1890. The state constitution was adopted in 1889. The chief executive officer is the governor. The state legislature consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Heading the judiciary is the Supreme Court of five justices.

For many years state and local politics were led by the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, which was organized in 1873 to protect the interests of ranchers. Four of the association’s members represented the state in the U.S. Congress and served as governors of Wyoming. One of the state’s leading political figures was Nellie Tayloe Ross, a Democrat, who took office as the first elected woman governor in the United States in 1925. Republican Dick Cheney, who was raised in Casper, was vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He had served as the state’s sole congressman to the U.S. House of Representatives from 1979 to 1989.

History

The first people of Wyoming were Paleo-Indian hunters and gatherers who probably arrived from Siberia through Alaska at least 13,000 years ago. The total number of these peoples was never large, because they were highly dependent on local populations of game animals. By the time white explorers made their first well-documented visits to Wyoming, the state’s population likely did not exceed 10,000. The Shoshone were the largest group in Wyoming at the beginning of the 19th century, but there were also smaller numbers of Arapaho, Crow, Cheyenne, Gros Ventre (Atsina), Arikara, Nez Percé, Ute, and Sioux. (See alsoGreat Basin Indians; Plains Indians.)

Exploration

The first known European explorers to enter Wyoming were the French Canadian brothers François and Louis-Joseph, sons of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de la Vérendrye. The brothers traveled through the northeastern corner of the state in 1743 while unsuccessfully searching for a route to the Pacific Ocean. Although the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–06) missed Wyoming by 60 miles (97 kilometers), a member of the group, John Colter, broke away from the main party and trapped in the Jackson Hole and Yellowstone National Park areas for some time.

From Report of The Exploring Expedition to The Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44, by John C. Fremont, 1845

U.S. National Park Service

The early explorers were followed by small numbers of fur traders. After 1824 the Rocky Mountain trappers and traders began holding most of their annual meetings along the Green River. The traders Robert Campbell and William Sublette built Fort William (later called Fort Laramie) near the junction of the Laramie and North Platte rivers in 1834. This first permanent settlement in what is now Wyoming became an Army fort in 1849. Jim Bridger founded Fort Bridger in what is now Uinta county in 1843. This post was used by the U.S. Army for many years during the Indian wars.

Other early military posts were Forts Reno and Phil Kearny, built along the Bozeman Trail to Montana, and Fort Russell, on Crow Creek in the southeast. Cheyenne was founded near Fort Russell in 1867. The forts provided not only trading opportunities but also protection from attacks by Native Americans, who bitterly resisted the occupation of their land. After years of fighting, the Indian tribes in 1868 signed two treaties with the U.S. government, at Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger. The treaties assigned land upon which the Native Americans were to settle. However, some Indians continued to resist white settlers until after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana in 1876 (seeCuster, George Armstrong). Within months of that Native American victory, the U.S. Army came back to defeat the Indians and force them to settle on reservations.

For many years the Wyoming region was divided into two parts. The section west of the Continental Divide was part of three territories—first Oregon, and then Utah and Idaho. Eastern Wyoming was included in Nebraska and Dakota territories. Finally, in 1868, both sections were united into Wyoming Territory. The territorial legislature met the next year, and for the first time in U.S. history women were given equal voting rights with men. In 1870 the territory set another precedent when women were selected to serve on its juries, but this experiment ended in 1871.

Scenics of America/PhotoLink/Getty Images

Wyoming’s chief tourist attraction was recognized in 1872 when Yellowstone became the first national park created by Congress. The importance of the cattle industry was acknowledged the following year with the formation of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. Another valuable source of income was opened in 1889 when the first oil well was drilled in Shannon Field along Salt Creek, north of Casper.

Statehood and Modern Development

On July 10, 1890, Wyoming was admitted to the Union as the 44th state. Its constitution provided for the same rights for women that had been granted by the territorial legislature.

During the first two decades of the 20th century, the population of the state nearly doubled, mostly attributed to the discovery and drilling of oil. The Great Depression of the 1930s, however, brought a rise in unemployment, and many people left the state in search of work. Economic recovery programs helped to bring jobs back to the state. Dam-building projects harnessed the state’s rivers for irrigation and to generate electricity.

Jim Sugar/Corbis

After World War II, Wyoming experienced modest population growth and an expansion of its agricultural and mining sectors. The discovery of uranium, an important nuclear fuel, in 1951 coincided with the expansion of the country’s nuclear arsenal. Steel foundries and coal-burning power plants were built in the 1960s, during which time the state’s oil industry grew markedly as well. The energy boom of the 1970s attracted many new residents to Wyoming. With the collapse of oil prices in the mid-1980s, however, the state’s economy once again bottomed out, which led to significant migration out of the state.

With the development of ski facilities at Jackson and nearby towns beginning in the late 1940s, Wyoming became a popular winter-sports destination. Consequently, tourism emerged as an important component of the economy. Later in the 20th century numerous wealthy visitors, many with connections to Hollywood, bought second homes in Wyoming, particularly in Jackson.

Although Wyoming retains its Western heritage and personality, employment in the state is now more centered on mining and the service industry than on cowboy life. The state’s reliance on the energy industries of coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium has made Wyoming subject to boom-and-bust cycles that depend on world prices for its products. The state has made considerable and largely successful efforts to diversify its economy, increasing its emphasis on tourism and recreation, but still remains tied to mining and ranching. (See alsoUnited States, “Great Plains” and “Rocky Mountains.”)

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